I enjoyed watching “Shakespeare in Love” but when it won the Oscar over “Saving Private Ryan”, that was when I finally stopped watching the Oscars.
I saw “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern” performed at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard when I was perhaps 15. (Around 1975 or so). Really changed my whole thinking about theater. A play within a play, about a play. And about existentialism. And about language. And funny as hell. I eventually saw “The Real Inspector Hound”, “Travesties”, “Jumpers”, and “Dogg’s Hamlet/Cahoot’s MacBeth”. Stoppard was definitely my favorite playwright. RIP.
Memory Eternal!
Stoppard now joins Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
If I’m not mistaken, English was Stoppard’s second language, too. He was born Czech.
Read this via a link at Powerline today, thanks for posting it here. And excellent piece. Don’t really know any Stoppard (other than Shakespeare in Love, which was fine but I do get why people thought it did not deserve Best Picture), but this make me want to know his work. Might try reading Leopoldstadt, although it’s been a very long time since I read a play!
RIP Tom Stoppard!